When we talk about non-alcoholic wine, many people say “this is not wine” or “this is grape juice”. In this article, we will explain why non-alcoholic wine is not juice and the different methods for making non-alcoholic wines. Without a doubt, non-alcoholic wine is one of the most popular non-alcoholic drink categories, and every year there are more options for all tastes.
What is non-alcoholic wine?
According to the Spanish dictionary, wine “is the natural food obtained exclusively by total or partial alcoholic fermentation of fresh grapes, squeezed or not, or grape wort.” So non-alcoholic wine falls within this definition since it is made conventionally – fermenting the wort – and then the alcohol is eliminated through the dealcoholization process. Therefore, non-alcoholic wine is not juice, because it dealcoholizes a wine produced until the end.
As with beers, there are non-alcoholic wines that may contain traces of alcohol, always less than 1% alcohol content. If you want to buy non-alcoholic wines, we recommend checking the label of each dealcoholized wine to find out the exact content. In Spain, a drink with less than 1% alcohol is considered non-alcoholic.
How is non-alcoholic wine made?
Many people ask us “how is non-alcoholic wine made?“. Here we explain the techniques for making non-alcoholic wine. Right now you can create any type of non-alcoholic wine – white, rosé, red, sparkling – thanks to these techniques. Technology improves every year, and we are sure that new and better ones will come out in the future.
Inverted Rotating Cones Method
The CCR technology or inverted rotating cone system is the only one capable of reducing the alcohol content in wine with zero loss of aroma and flavor. It is a vertical stainless steel column with a rotating central axis that contains 40 inverted cones that help to gently remove volatile components from wine through vacuum distillation. In short, the wine is centrifuged to separate it into layers of liquid.
During the process, the wine is passed through the column and the aromas are removed on the first pass through the rotating cone and stored separately to be added again later. The alcohol is removed on the second pass. The concentrated flavor and aroma compounds are fully incorporated back into the dealcoholized wine, obtaining a quality product, with all the flavor and aroma but without alcohol.
Reverse osmosis
The reverse osmosis technique consists of passing the wine through a membrane that allows the alcohol to be separated from the wine. This membrane allows water and alcohol to pass through, but not the rest of the components. Once the alcohol is separated, the rest of the components are recommended again to create the final non-alcoholic wine.
An advantage of this method is that it avoids heating the wine.
Lyophilization
The lyophilization method consists of freezing wine and then introducing it into a vacuum pressure chamber. Then, part of the water and alcohol are eliminated through the sublimation process (direct change from the solid to the gaseous state). Once the alcohol is separated, the rest of the components are put back together to create the non-alcoholic wine.
The drawback of this technique is that less aroma intensity is produced in dealcoholized wine.
If you don’t know which non-alcoholic wine to choose, we recommend our list of the best non-alcoholic wines.
